TAHLEQUAH —

A joyful and adventurous leader has taken the helm of St. Basil’s Episcopal Church.

The Rev. Debora Jennings will miss climbing Mt. Ranier, but she looks forward to discovering the beauty of eastern Oklahoma and capturing it with her camera.

Coming from the Lower Yakima Valley in Washington, the grandmother said the university here was a big draw for her. She’s taught a number of courses, including speech, interpersonal and intercultural communication, and rhetoric, and lectured in sociology, psychology and religious studies.

The local congregation had been without a clergy for a number of years and was hungry for a full-time clergy who would help them focus on mission and ministry.

“The people here in Tahlequah are very hospitable and the people in the congregation very welcoming,” she said.

The Episcopal Church follows the revised Common Lectionary, she said. “The themes for my preaching vary from Sunday to Sunday, but the bottom line is preaching the values of the kingdom of God - love, compassion, forgiveness and peace.”

Micah 6:8 is a favorite scripture: “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

“I love to see people smile and laugh,” Jennings said. “There is a fair amount of joy expressed in our worship.”

That doesn’t mean members aren’t reverent or don’t take seriously the commitment to their faith.

“But I believe God wants us to be joyful in our worship and everyday life,” she said. ”Being with people brings me joy – hearing voices of children in the congregation, seeing the light of Christ expressed in people’s eyes and hearing people talk about how God touched their lives.”

Last Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, she took communion and ashes to the church shut-ins. One woman who could barely talk tried to join her in the Lord’s Prayer.

“She shut her eyes and took my hands,” she said. “One out of about five words I could understand. She was being touched by God and she was touching me.”

St. Basil’s is a traditional Episcopal Church, she said. They have Eucharist every Sunday, and a great mix of traditional and contemporary music. Adult education is at 9:30 a.m. and worship begins at 10:30 a.m. During Lent the church has a 10 a.m. Eucharist, followed by a book study. Forgiveness is the topic during Lent. A potluck is held every Wednesday evening at 6 p.m., followed by a 7 p.m. class on Anglicanism.

The Episcopal Church has Relief and Development fund that reaches out to people in need all around the world. St. Basil’s supports it with financial donations, and Jennings would like to see some members team up with other Episcopal churches in the area or college students and go on mission trips.

The Episcopal Church is traditional in many ways, progressive in others.“It’s tradition – the use of scripture in our service, the authority of scripture as the basis of our faith,” Jennings said. “But we believe God gave us a mind and that with the gift of our intellect and through prayer, we can address the complexity of the issues facing humanity of every generation.”

The church is considering offering, “la misa en espanol” or “Mass in Spanish.”

Labyrinth ministry was a project she started in 1993 after attending a retreat. After Easter, she’ll set up a painted canvas labyrinth to offer to the community. “An episode of ‘Touched by an Angel’ made labyrinth’s popular,” she said. “Hospitals and medical centers use them for recovery after surgery and heart attacks. People recover more quickly, their blood pressure is lower and it reduces stress.”

The Episcopal Church celebrates the same saint days as the Catholic Church, she said. It adheres to the same councils of the church and uses the same creeds, like the Apostle’s Creed and Nicene Creed, in worship. Many of the prayers are exactly the same.

“We believe in the real presence of Christ in the consecrated bread and wine we use for communion,” she said. “The main differences include our inclusivity of women in all roles within the church, and we do not give authority over to the pope.”

She believes her priesthood flows out of her baptism. “As part of my baptismal covenant, I’m called to use those gifts, of preaching, teaching and nurturing to lead a congregation,” she said.

In every congregation she’s served, there have been those who have looked at her gender first, she said. “But in each case once they experience me as a pastor, a preacher, a teacher, gender becomes a non-issue,” she said.

She likes to say she’s been in ministry “all my life.” At age 6, she began playing music at church. She’s a concert pianist, organist and choir director.  Raised a southern Methodist, she became the choir director, read scripture during church and also visited sick and shut-ins.

“I’ve been so blessed in my life to have wonderful teachers, wonderful mentors, people who would invite me to wonderful and new experiences,” she said. “So as a result I’ve been able to do a lot of varied things.”

When she was studying geography at age 11 she decided to go to Teotihuacan, and in 1992, she stood on top of the Temple of the Sun during the summer solstice.

As a child, she wanted to be the first woman on the moon. “I came from a family of scientists. My uncle Dean designed the Saturn 5B booster that took the first men to the moon. I decided to design a fuel concoction for a rocket ship when I was about 11, but my mother suggested a different occupation [after Jennings caught the kitchen on fire].”

After that, she started bring her Bible home from church and preaching whatever the sermon had been that morning – to her dolls and teddy bears.

The family moved to Princeton, Ill., and she played the organ one Sunday at a little Episcopal Church.

“I’d never heard of that church before, but I knew I’d come home,” she said.

Her bachelor of science in communication is from Arizona State University. Her master’s is from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific at Berkeley, Calif.

At St. Lukes in Prescott, Ariz., she was rector for five years. She was vicar of St. Jude’s in Utah for eight years and adjunct professor at South Utah University. And she served as regional vicar of Lower Yacima Valley in Washington State for 3-1/2 years with oversight of four different congregations.

She’s served in Panama and El Salvadore, and is a trained spiritual director from the Shalem Institute in Maryland.  “I learned a process of listening and guiding, tool and education - to better guide people along their spiritual journey,” Jennings said.

Jennings is a published writer of poems, photographer and composer. She likes to sew and is a crafter, enjoying counted cross stitch. One favorite Christmas gift was new Bernini sewing machine from church members.

“I wore out my last one making gifts for the church bazaar,” she said.

She has one son, Jeffrey, and his wife Kim, and two grandchildren, Aidan and Taylor, in Arizona. Every year, the family has a date at the Disneyland Hotel, she said: “It’s a family tradition.”